This kitten went through so many names before we finally found the right one. Let me tell you a little about him and let you see what you think of the names he went through.

He's about 12 weeks old (as of late August 2005) and he's the fifth cat in our household (kitten #5 = Mambo, get it?).

Most of him is a strawberry blonde color. Not quite red or orange, but rather a kind of tannish buff with a hint of orange. His coloring has lead us to several names including Cooper (a play on copper) and Mango (a color description and just about the only SNL character I like, not to mention the kitten really is irresistible).

He's very playful like most kittens. He seems to be having a little trouble with the concept of gravity as a lot of his leaps and climbs end up in face-plants. He tends to jump onto the perch I put by my desk and then skid onto my desk knocking off everything in his path. Whatever he doesn't knock down accidently, he then bats at until it falls down. This desire for a big mess has lead to the name Oscar. I also just really like ugly old man names.

He is a very friendly cat, he wants to be bestest buds with the other 4 cats in the house but they have no desire for this whatsoever. They hiss in his face and I think the best we can hope for is eventual tolerance. My older cats are not very friendly to begin with. But this and his lack of grace have lead to the name Joxer.

Let's see, what else.

He loves a piece of purple string. Carries it around the house and left it for us as a present on our bed while we were sleeping.

He suckles. It's so cute! He sucks on a part of my finger when he's being snuggly.

Oh and he's a purr machine. Just let him know you're in the room and the motorboat starts revving.

Having food or water o n my desk is no longer possible. Once he realizes it's there, you can pick up the plate and run around the house and he'll chase you to get his nose into it. And he'll stick his head down any glass he can find even though we have several water dishes (some are self filling) to choose from.

He likes following the curser on my computer screen. Takes a lot of work to be able to continue with my computer stuff because he keeps placing himself in front of the monitor to chase the cursor and when he's done with that, he tries to sleep there.

We have now found 2 rolls of toilet paper completely shredded beneath a now empty cardboard roll.

He's a leg-catcher. As you walk through my house, at some point you will have a kitten somewhere between your ankle and your thigh. And when he gets ya, he wants to keep ya!

Buddy really would be the perfect name for him except that I often call my other boy cat BuddyBoy. My other boy cat is very possessive and jealous so the last thing I can do is give his nickname to the new guy. He was named Sonny for about 12 hours. He's the first kitten that my husband and I adopted together (the other four were brought together from our bachelor/ette households), and it was a take off of my maiden name, Robinson. Hubby doesn't like the name Robin and I already have a cousin by that name living nearby. We also thought of Butter because of his coloring. He looks like a creamsicle or sherbet so if someone can think of a take-off of one of those words, I'd like to hear it. We tried Sherman but it doesn't seem to fit.

So here is the first list of names we went through : Cooper Joxer Mango Mambo Oscar Butter After posting this page, here are some of the names you suggested: Jinxy Chester - I love this name but I already had a pet named Chester, a frog Gabriel Jingo Jedidiah Skittles - I don't know why this fits, but it really does Sparky And the winner is... Mayday! According to his adoption paperwork, he was born on approximately April 30, 2005. My husband and I got married on May 1, 2005 so we decided that the kitten must have been born on that day too. He is the first "ours" cat, the other four having been merged from our single lives. And when we discover another garbage can dumped all over the floor, Mayday is a natural thing to yell. And my husband will remember our anniversary, I'm making sure of that!